I really enjoyed the readings in Beowulf. though the writing can be hard to follow at times the vocabulary and especially the kenning used in the poem make the story rich and interesting. but thanks to the good translation the story is still understandable. but i was wondering about the kennings. does anyone know in the original translation of the word did the Old English have words that we dont that meant things like hall-session or bone-lapper or did they combine to words as show in the translation with a dash? if i remember correctly from the reading in the section on the history of Old English it stated that most of the large vocabulary we now have was not there in old English and that around 80 percent of our words were taken or derived from other languages. i wonder if this is the reason they invented kennings, to create words and meanings that they did not have one single word for. while reading Beowulf was there anything else you noticed about the word choice and the use of kennings that interested you? what were some of your favorite kennings and why?